Abstract
Standard driving cycles are usually used to compare vehicles from distinct regions, and local driving cycles reproduce more realistic conditions in specific regions. In this article, we employed a simple methodology for developing local driving cycles and subsequently performed a kinematic and energy analysis. As an application, we employed the methodology for cars and motorcycles in Recife, Brazil. The speed profile was collected using a smartphone (1 Hz) validated against a high precision global positioning system (10 Hz), presenting a mean absolute error of 3 km/h. The driving cycles were thus developed using the micro-trip method. The kinematic analysis indicated that motorcycles had a higher average speed and acceleration (32.5 km/h, 0.84 m/s2) than cars (22.6 km/h, 0.55 m/s2). As a result of the energy analysis, it was found that inertia is responsible for most of the fuel consumption for both cars (59%) and motorcycles (41%), but for motorcycles the aerodynamic drag is also relevant (36%). With regards to fuel consumption, it was found that the standard driving cycle used in Brazil (FTP-75; 2.47 MJ/km for cars and 0.84 MJ/km for motorcycles) adequately represents the driving profile for cars (2.46 MJ/km), and to a lesser extent motorcycles (0.91 MJ/km) in off-peak conditions. Finally, we evaluated the influence of the vehicle category on energy consumption, obtaining a maximum difference of 38% between a 2.0 L sports utility vehicle and a 1.0 L hatchback.
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